Alain de Botton
Alain de Botton
Alain de Botton, FRSLis a Swiss-born, British-based self-help philosopher and public speaker. His books and television programmes discuss various contemporary subjects and themes, emphasizing philosophy's relevance to everyday life. At 23, he published Essays in Love, which went on to sell two million copies. Other bestsellers include How Proust Can Change Your Life, Status Anxietyand The Architecture of Happiness...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth20 December 1969
sexy feelings excitement
The more closely we analyze what we consider 'sexy,' the more clearly we will understand that eroticism is the feeling of excitement we experience at finding another human being who shares our values and our sense of the meaning of existence.
action cures tendencies
The best cure for one's bad tendencies is to see them in action in another person.
practice contentment violin
Being content is perhaps no less easy than playing the violin well: and requires no less practice.
knowing exciting fulfilling
Work is most fulfilling when you're at the comfortable, exciting edge of not quite knowing what you are doing.
happiness emotional expression
Our capacity to draw happiness from aesthetic objects or material goods in fact seems critically dependent on our first satisfying a more important range of emotional or psychological needs, among them the need for understanding, for love, expression and respect.
hurt light looks
As victims of hurt, we frequently don't bring up what ails us, because so many wounds look absurd in the light of day.
views quality world
We each appear to hold within ourselves a range of divergent views as to our native qualities.. And amid such uncertainty, we typically turn to the wider world to settle the question of our significance.. we seem beholden to affections of others to endure ourselves.
heart people special
We keep a special place in our hearts for people who refuse to be impressed by us.
suffering behaviour malice
Forgiveness requires a sense that bad behaviour is a sign of suffering rather than malice.
confused ambition envy
Envy: a confused, tangled guide to one's own ambitions.
differences despair stories
The difference between hope and despair is a different way of telling stories from the same facts.
worry anxiety enjoy-life
Though it may feel otherwise, enjoying life is no more dangerous than apprehending it with continuous anxiety and gloom.
crazy maturity knowing
Maturity: knowing where you're crazy, trying to warn others of the fact and striving to keep yourself under control.
interesting people cages
People only get really interesting when they start to rattle the bars of their cages.